The new 2024 iPad Airs were initially advertised with an M2 processor with a 10-core graphics processing unit (GPU). But recently Apple quietly made changes to the technical specifications of the tablet, and now all official pages indicate that the GPU in the M2 has 9 cores. The editors of 9to5Mac drew attention to this change.

Why did the number of cores change?

Apple did not provide any comments regarding the changes in the tablet description. Updates have been made to the iPad Air M2 specifications page, and archived data appears to have happened within the last 10 days.

The original press release announcing the iPad Air M2, as well as the support page, which has not yet been updated, still states that the device is equipped with a 10-core GPU. This discrepancy was noticed and commented on by 9to5Mac, suggesting that the error could have occurred due to the inattention of Apple employees during the presentation. One way or another, this whole situation misleads users.

First version of M2 with 9-core GPU

9to5Mac also notes that this is the first time Apple is offering the M2 chip with a 9-core GPU. For example, the MacBook Air M2 is available with an 8-core and 10-core GPU, which could indicate that the M2 chip in the iPad Air is a toned down version of the 10-core variant.

It's expected that most iPad Air M2 users won't notice a difference between the 9-core and 10-core GPU. However, despite this, Apple must clarify the situation and explain why such changes occurred.

It also recently became clear that Apple seems to have deliberately kept silent about some of the features of the new tablets. In particular, during the announcement of the new tablets, Apple kept silent not only about the fact that not all 2024 iPad Pros received the same M4 chips (the elder models have higher performance than the other ones), but also about another unpleasant feature: in the cheaper version of the 2024 iPad Air, the screen brightness is about 20% lower than in the more expensive version.